By Yuichiro Kakutani, Research Intern, Japan Program

High-level leaders of all but one of the nations that joined North Korea in the defunct Six-Party Talks have met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the last two months. The lone exception: Japan.

It did not have to be this way – last month, at the Singapore summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, Kim reportedly said he was “open” to meeting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. But today North Korea keeps Japan out of the denuclearization process, and refuses to meet until Japan ends military exercises. This absence of Japan, a neighboring U.S. ally, from peninsular diplomacy harms denuclearization prospects.

This article was originally published in The Diplomat on July 27, 2018. Read the full article here.